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23 February 2007

I've decided to not do Restaurant Reviews on my blog. There are a lot of other blogs out there that do this and frankly can do a better job at it than I can. I would, however, like to share my good food experiences when I have one, and there is no better place to start than Rockpool Bar and Grill, Melbourne.

Neil Perry is one of my favourite chefs. I have all his cookbooks, watched his TV shows and have seen him do cooking demonstrations live. I have even had a chat with him while he was autographing my cookbook "The Food I love". I've been to his Rockpool Sydney and absolutely loved it.

Hubby and I went here as a belated Valentines Dinner. We left the Little one with the grandparents. It was meant to be a surprise as to where we were going to dine but I had a feeling which restaurant we were going as I have mentioned numerous times that I would like to go there as soon as I heard it opened in crown.

And what a meal it was. Here's a break down of what we had...

To start things off they offered sourdough rye bread and butter. They weren't skimpy with the bread as they gave us one to start the meal and then another slice before the main.

We both thought our entrées was delicious leaving us with an appetite for more. My three little salads was an explosion of flavour. The beetroot was sweet, the carrot and raisin was tart and the celeriac was creamy. Hubby's egg, we were told, was cooked at 65degrees and cooked very slowly. This allowed the egg to be cooked but still runny therefore acted like the dressing for the salad. Delish....

Main :Shared - Rib Eye on the bone 750g 42 days (for two people)

This was a good steak. There was a note on the menu that all Aged grass fed beef will not benefit being cooked longer than a medium rare, so that's how we had it. I usually like my meat at medium but who am I to argue? It was meltingly tender on the inside and nice and charred on the outside. It was a great choice.

Sauces :Horseradish creamBearnaise

I'm not a big fan of horseradish but I gave it a go. It wasn't bad at all. It was very creamy and not too hot. I really like the bearnaise sauce. These sauces really complimented the steak well.

We decided to go for three sides. Hubby has to always have potatoes (It's the English in him!) and the gratin was the only potato side they had. It was creamy and cheesy like good gratin is meant to be. I always have to have greens with my meal so the boiled greens was my choice. It was cooked enough so it still had a crunch and only had a slight lemony flavour...nice. The onion rings were also hubby's choice. He lerves onion rings. It was big and crunchy with not too much batter. Yummo

hmmm.. what can I say about dessert. At this stage we were really full but could not leave without having our favourite course. My iced coffee was served in a tall glass. It was coffee granita then the waitress poured chocolate milk into the glass in front of me. Next to it was the roulade. Personally, I think the iced coffee could've stood on it's own. The roulade was rich and very chocolatey. Hubby liked his brownie and polished it off quickly. It had more of a moussy texture than a brownie. It was served as a long slice with the crystallised ginger lacing the bottom. It melted in the mouth. **drool**

When I ordered a Cafe Latte, they also brought out a serving of caramelised popcorn. Normally I would've have scoffed it all down but I was trying to make my way through my own dessert!

The extensive wine list was a bible. You will need a whole day to look through it if you wanted to order a bottle. Wine by the glass, however, only filled one page... luckily for us. When orderig wine by the glass, I have to commend Rockpool on showing you the bottle and pouring it in front of you so you know that you are in fact getting what you paying for. I think this should be law!

The only problem we had was trying to stand up after the meal as we were very full :)

All in all, we enjoyed our food experience at Rockpool Melbourne. We ate our way through the courses loving every thing about it. We would've loved to have seen the man himself in the kitchen but seeing he's a Sydneysider and a busy one at that, we'll be very lucky to spot him here.

I've been to both as well and I agree that they are both totally different from each other. To be honest I read your review before I made my post. I wish I had read it before I went so I knew to get the mac and cheese! Having said that, I wouldn't have changed any choices that we made :)